What went viral this Chinese New Year

The Year of the Horse is upon us, with festivities running through to March 3. As ever, luxury houses rose to the occasion: from Dior to Thom Browne, brands unveiled dedicated capsules reworking equestrian codes — horseshoes, motion, symbols of luck and renewal — across handbags, ready-to-wear and accessories, wrapped in auspicious reds and cinematic campaign storytelling. But beyond the polished lookbooks and limited-edition drops, only a handful of moments truly broke through fashion’s inner circle. These were the launches and cultural curveballs that took on a life of their own — sparking memes, sell-outs and social media frenzies, and tapping into the humor, pride and collective joy that define Chinese New Year in 2026. Dumpling Bag by Esenes Social context: One Esenes Instagram post has garnered more than 562,000 likes. On Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote), the brand’s hashtag has 16,000 impressions, with a significant volume of additional posts mentioning the bag organically. Summary: Brooklyn-based Esenes Worldwide has served up one of the season’s most shareable accessories. The brand’s dumpling-shaped bag — crafted from genuine translucent leather, priced at $150, and limited to just 150 units — dropped on February 20, perfectly timed for the New Year. That a brand with 143,000 followers generated over half a million likes on a single post speaks to the outsized cultural power of joyful, irreverent fashion in 2026. Adidas Tang-style suit jacket Social context: On Xiaohongshu, #trefoilnewchinesestyle — referencing the Adidas Originals logo and the neo-Chinese fashion trend — has 6.8 million views. Summary: Already viral since its Shanghai Fashion Week debut in October 2025, the Adidas Tang-suit–inspired track jacket became one of the season’s most talked-about pieces — arriving organically into Chinese New Year conversations rather than as a deliberate festive drop. The jacket swaps a standard zip front for frog-button closures and adds a Mandarin collar to the brand’s signature three-stripe silhouette. Designed by Adidas’ Shanghai team for the domestic market, it taps into the rise of xinzhongshi (新中式) — or “new Chinese style” — blending heritage codes with streetwear ease. It has resonated particularly strongly with Gen Z consumers and diasporic creatives, who read it as cultural pride rather than costume. The “crying horse” (哭哭马) Social context: #crycryhorse has 12 million views on Xiaohongshu. Summary: A red plush horse intended as a cheerful New Year mascot became one of the season’s most unexpected viral products after a factory error inverted its stitched smile, giving the toy a permanently forlorn expression. Chinese social media users swiftly adopted the “crying horse” as a symbol of workplace exhaustion and the pressures of modern life — demand surged at Yiwu’s wholesale markets as a result, transforming a manufacturing mishap into a meme-driven sell-out ahead of the Year of the Horse. Special mention: Draco Malfoy becoming a Year of the Horse mascot Social context: One of the most-watched TikTok videos about the trend has more than 3 million views. On Xiaohongshu, a repost of Tom Felton’s Instagram content has over 100,000 likes, 15,700 saves and 5,000-plus comments. Summary: Draco Malfoy — the Slytherin antagonist from the Harry Potter franchise — has become an unlikely symbol of good fortune for China’s Year of the Horse, appearing on festive decorations, memes and merchandise across social platforms and shopping malls. The trend stems from a piece of linguistic wordplay: in Mainland China, the character’s name is transliterated as Ma er fu (马尔福), combining the characters for “horse” (马), a phonetic middle syllable, and “fortune” (福). The once-villainous wizard has since been embraced as a mascot of luck and celebration — a status that Tom Felton himself acknowledged on Instagram, posting a video message to Chinese fans on the first day of the New Year.

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What went viral this Chinese New Year